I’m back from golfing in Florida to talk Gargantia with Fosh, lvlln and Sumairii as Striker is aiming for the Gargantia fleet. The OST just released, so enjoy some tunes from that in the background during our mini-talk.

Yay the Gargantia mini-talk is back with Jrow, Lvlln and Sumairii as we talk about these two shocking episodes and yeah the OST has been released so make sure you grab that asap!

Only comment that I had for your guy was too much material to fit in with the show. The design is pretty good, but that’s an awful lot of resources to wear in that situation. Plus, that leather vest feels pretty restrictive, as well as the long wrist covers and sandals.

Your guy is nice, but the one thing to note that Highway has said is that he’s got too much on and with too many details. The winners had less detailed outfits, as is the case with a lot of anime and manga. Your guy is good for a few drawings, like if he was a roleplay OC of some sort, but not so much when it comes to animating every frame with all those details.

As for the one you thought would get through, I don’t think the clothing really fits in with Gargantia or any of the other groups we’ve seen- if the character was male, maybe he could be a tranny because of the aloha shirt, but not with the mechanical tool in hand.

Overall, art contests are really hard to win, if you manage to win one it’s a lot of luck and just whoever the judges were and what they like.

I think Kugel survived to Earth, maybe the way Red did, in hibernation, but upon exposure to the air caught whatever bug that did him in. He likely started his cult prior to his death, and Striker, basically doing what Chamber says they are to do, worked to carry out its pilots instructions, even after his death. I doubt that whole thing is something that Striker came up with on its own, but we don’t know what kind of fault programming the Machine Calibers have in case of pilot death.

For the energy replenishment, they really glossed over anything about it, but I thought what they were saying is that Striker had been hooked up to a generator, and had larger power reserves. I would guess that they can use electricity to regenerate their stored power, and probably have some ability to get power from almost any source, at varying rates. It would fit with their missions that they might not have very robust self-generation capability, since the Machine Calibers are short-range, short mission apparatus. They are carried to the battle, fight, and then carried away, so being supplied power from their carrier is likely.

Rackage is an opportunist. I doubt she was bribed, more that she saw the ability to be stronger and get back on her feet and more in charge, and went along with it. Note that she doesn’t have any mark on her forehead like everyone else does, but she still seems to be in charge. You don’t get to be the Great Pirate Rackage without a boatload of charisma, and she definitely uses that to her advantage.

I have to say that I was ultimately disappointed with the ‘twist’ that was used, that Kugel was dead and it was Striker that was carrying out all these plans. To me, it felt like once again, Urobuchi punted on the question of humanity’s path and differences of opinions by making the ‘bad guy’ be inhuman, rather than just another person. I thought he did the same thing in Psycho-Pass, although ironically that time it was the ‘human’ aspect that was monstrous, and this time it’s the computer aspect that’s monstrous. In Psycho-Pass, I felt that the computer would more represent the wishes of other humans since it’s programmed by humans, as opposed to the whims of 200 atavistic humans. And here, it’s the computer that is causing the trouble, rather than if Kugel was alive. I just feel like it’s a rather ham-handed way of pointing out “SEE!?!?! This is the BAD GUY!!!!” and changing the focus from ‘people disagree, and some people can have horrible ideas from the most noble of motivations” to “OMG We’ve created a monster!” I wish he was more subtle with the whole thing.

Yeah we really won’t know the truth about Kugel unless Striker reveals the truth about how he died? Like you said Highway we really have no idea what the AI does after the pilot dies or if they can act on their own like Striker…

I think you are right about the power replenishment~

Agreed on Rackage and just like we said on the recording she was probably waiting to gain more “help” before striking back and thats p much were Red and Pinion come into play.

Well, Pinion changed again. Wonderful. I don’t think he ever got enough characterization early on, when we could have found out his true character/personality to make any sense of what he’s doing now.

I was very disappointed with the idea that Kugel is dead. It raises too many questions and really draws the idea of the human versus human conflict that was set up from the very beginning away from what it could have been. The show started with Red contrasting with Gargantia, and then expanded to the Hideauze being former humans versus the Galactic Alliance which was human still. And then we get to the most personal of the fights, Red versus Kugel, two people who have had (maybe not in Kugel’s case) the difficulties of adjusting to Earth with Red finally breaking free from his commander and taking that human versus human challenge to do what he thinks is right. He makes his big decision, which was pretty cool to me, and then Kugel is dead and Striker is the bad guy. It just makes the institution of the GA seem to be the “bad guy” rather than showing that on a personal level, people can be horrid.

I mean, the cult people are horrible with their human sacrifice/body bag swimming, but it’s still a critique of an institution, rather than of a person. Maybe that’s what this show is going after- many institutions are bad, sick people shouldn’t just be killed off cause they might be pretty cool, ect. I just don’t think it’s working, and maybe this latest twist is too close to the end for it to be worthwhile.

I too am leaning more towards a man vs. machine situation here. Striker is acting more like an independent entity than anything Chamber could manage, which leads me to think that this wasn’t something done by Kugel, but something that she decided on her own.

Striker is acting completely different from Chamber. Chamber still seems to hold to his parameters and programming in most things, and honestly I think would have a hard time understanding human deception and subterfuge. He thinks and acts like a machine that can put meaning to human actions, but does not employ them himself. Striker is acting pretty independently, going so far as use the commander’s voice and image to fool others, going along with the “god” persona, lying to Red and Chamber about Kugel’s condition, she’s acting like a devious human, with the mentality of a machine.

I think she is either doing this for her own evil purposes (advancing the human race so that they can create the machines, so that the machines will replace humanity), or she is trying to accomplish her prime directive of protecting humanity, but by her own set of standards, using what’s she’s learned by observing humanity.

I tend to think it more likely that Striker is executing programming from Kugel from before he died, rather than acting from it’s own agency. It could be using a wide latitude in executing those orders, like “Don’t let anyone know I’ve died”, but I find it harder to believe that it’s completely independent in coming up with this plan of action without direction.

If the job of the Machine Caliber is to help the pilot execute his orders and mission, and this was determined to be the mission, I think that’s plenty sufficient for Striker to continue that path even after Kugel’s death. But the blame still greatly accrues to Kugel for setting up the programming.

We’ll see. I’m used to the “evolving AI that decides to betray and destroy its master(s)” storyline, so that was what first came to my mind when I saw episode 11.

I guess Kugel to me never came off as a megalomaniac who wanted to rule or even a person who went that closely to GA regulations from the last I saw of him. He was even less by the books than Red. And from the amount of decomp that resulted once air got to his corpse, I think he’s been dead for about a year, which happens to be about the amount of time Red’s been on Earth.

I’m leaning more towards he having died in space during travel through the wormhole or in battle, or he might have died on impact when falling to Earth. Some have even posed the theory that Striker killed him her self, by putting him under an induced coma and then cutting off his air, water, and nutrients. Yet, I’m not sure if she would go that far, but I wouldn’t put it past her.

Did they say how long Red has been on Earth? I thought it was more ‘an unspecified time’ between the battle and being dredged up.

I don’t think we saw enough of Kugel to really make a distinction. As such, I’d lean more to the “when faced with a different situation, the commander falls back on his training” which I think would lead almost exactly to where we are. While you could have a rogue AI, I don’t see why that is anywhere near as likely as just Kugel believes all the things that Red believed. Remember that the main reasons that Red is changing his stance are because of his interactions with the members of Gargantia (Amy, Bevel, Bellows, Ridget, Ordum, and even Pinion).

As far as the GA is concerned, *Red* is the one who has really ‘gone rogue’, and given that, if the Machine Calibers had that sort of independent agency, then Chamber is far more off his programming in helping Red fight his superior officer than Striker would be in carrying out orders set by Kugel to bring Earthy humanity in line with GA principles. The other option, which I think is the correct one, is that the Machine Calibers are machines, and carry out orders given until told to stop the best way that they can.

I think it’s stated in episode 1 that Red was in an induced coma for six months before he was found by Gargantia.

Now, how long it’s been since then, is a little harder to tell, but I think “Kugel” says somewhere in episode 11 that it’s been a year. However, that part I’m not so sure about. I also think either Pinion or Amy or someone else from Gargantia, says that Red’s been with them for 6 months as well. So that, with the 6 months he was in a coma, we can probably assume that he’s been on Earth about a year.

Pinion redeemed himself a bit after seeing what an idiot he has been. You don’t see much guys like pulling a 180° and actually join in a fight. I’m glad Ledo learned to look past his soldier complex and decided something on his own.

Urobuchi’s macabre storytelling has finally surfaced. I was wholly disturbed throughout the two episodes with this mindless extremist cult. That human sacrifice event made me cringe to no end. Even worse that those very people willingly agreed to it.

Since both Chamber and Striker are AIs, I could say things started out with Kugel and toward his death, Striker was learning from him to carry on his will when he eventually dies but as it evolved, so did its methods. A similar situation would be found in the movie I Robot where the main computer believed by having robots govern the humans, that mankind would continue its existence.

I never believed Rackage would willingly join that cult. Once an outlaw, always an outlaw. As a pirate, the only possible explanation she’d be there is that there is something of value around. Side note: She is still the sexiest pirate around.

Okay, either this show is going to end in the most sappy, stereotypical, “I-could-have-written-this-myself” ending, or they might try for something a little more original.

So Cmdr. “Kugel” introduced the Galactic Alliance’s society to Earth, and we began to see the other extreme of argument on the advancement of society. Sometimes humans “advance” to the point were things go wrong and they too lose touch with their humanity.

The Hideauze are forgotten as we see “Kugel” continue to push for the advancement of the human race and make them more efficient. Pinion and Flange and their fleet are dragged into it and “Kugel” is planning an operation that involves Gargantia.

How will Red react and will he continually follow orders blindly?

However, as I was watching episode 11, I thought to myself, “why do I get the funny feeling that Kugel is dead and this is Striker’s doing? Could it be that after her commander died the machine carried on the mission of the GA using the hologram of Kugel as a front?”

I was very suspicious of the fact that no one had actually seen Kugel and even Red had only seen computer images or holograms of him. Is this really going to be the machines taking over? Is Striker the “Skynet” of this series? Is Striker only pushing human advancements so that more machine calibers will be made and then plot human genocide, thus she will replace humans with the more logical machine?

Well, much was answered in the very next episode!
Finally an episode you can really sink your teeth into!

Everything that has happened so far has come to this. Gargantia is finally making the move to make some changes and take a stand. The humans aren’t crazy about this new order and start a rebellion headed by Pinion and Rakkage. For the first time in the show, Pinion isn’t a douchebag and is actually doing really well. I guess all he needed was a new hairstyle, which I have to say makes him look ten times better. He’s almost in bishie territory now.

Red has been battling against his ingrained training and has finally come to the decision that what his Commander is doing is wrong. He decides to fight against him instead, and Chamber decides to follow as his pilot decides, basing it on the logic that what the Commander is doing doesn’t follow along with Alliance regulations.

And thus begins the most epic of fights as Chamber and Striker go head to head, while Pinion and Rakkage take care of things on the ground. Red is able to pin his leader, only to find out what I and many others guessed last week: Kugel has been dead for some time and Striker has been the one truly running the show. This begs the question of whether Striker’s wiring has gone haywire or if the AI has become independent and is following her own plan? Either way, it has shocked Red to the core and he looks like he’s is out for mecha “blood” next week.

So what will be the thrilling conclusion to this tale and will it be a happy victory? Or will Striker’s attack cause a great loss of life?

I give this episode a 8.7/10 (Episode 11 got a 7.69/10). The end of this show is deciding not to be a disappointment, and I’m glad for that.